Chapter 18: League starter
Genk beat Ghent with three goals at home and advanced to the quarter-finals of the Belgian Cup. This game was also widely reported by the media, and everyone focused on Wang Feng, who represented Genk for the first time.
Belgian sports newspapers such as "Sport", "Latest News", etc., which have a relatively wide audience, reported the game on a prominent page.
The cover photo of "Sport" is Wang Feng celebrating after scoring a goal. The title is: "One pass and one shot in the first show, Wang leads Genk to the top 8 of the cup".
The cover of "Latest News" is a photo of the Genk team celebrating together. The title is: "Genk's rookie surprises everyone, wins, and advances to the top 8 of the cup".
In addition to praise, there are also many opinions from the media. They think that Wang Feng's performance in this game is indeed good, but it does not mean that his ability has been recognized. Let's have a closer look at Wang Feng's follow-up performance.
The "Standard" and other newspapers elaborated on this point of view, and the article pointed out: "Wang Feng is only 16 years old, and Genk cannot fully pin his hopes on him."
Whether it was praise or doubts, it didn't affect Wang Feng. He didn't even know that there was such a big reaction from the outside world in just one game, but the bonus after winning did make him happy for a long time. Even Karl Bess laughed after watching him for a while.
After the team's daily training, Wang Feng chose to practice extra as always.
Although he contributed several threatening crosses in the game, Wang Feng still felt dissatisfied. Caspar Blanche could not convert the ball into a goal, not only because of his limited ability to seize opportunities. It was also because Wang Feng's cross was placed in an uncomfortable position, and there was no way for him to fully exert his strength.
The previous fixed-point passing training has achieved some results. In the short pass, Wang Feng can control the ball to fall to the designated area by controlling the hitting position, strength and body posture.
As for the large-scale long pass, Wang Feng still lacks a bit of heat, the accuracy is not so high, and further practice is needed.
Moreover, the players are constantly moving during the game, so the control of the landing point needs to be predicted to realize the state of people arriving at the ball to form the greatest threat.
This requires the cultivation of a dynamic sense of distance. Wang Feng thought hard about the countermeasures and finally came up with a weird practice method.
He placed two balls under his feet at the same time, and kicked one of the ball with control, making it roll in different directions at different speeds, and then started the other ball himself, and finally passed the ball under his feet accurately. Allowing him to touch the rolling ball.
At the beginning, Wang Feng was still unable to make the two balls touch each other, but he continued to adjust according to the information provided by his senses, and the success rate gradually increased.
Time is passing by in Wang Feng's boring training. Due to the cup, Genk will play twice a week. They will play against Brussels at home on the weekend. Both the cup and the league are at home, and there is no need to travel back and forth. This is the only thing to be thankful for.
Wang Feng is also sure to usher in his debut in the League One, playing as the starting striker. In this game, the head coach Aimee Antonis carried out a rotation of personnel, mainly on the defensive line. The midfielder Karl Bess and the centre Caspar Blanche still started.
The head coach is still in a four-three-three formation. In the last cup match, he noticed that the tacit understanding between Wang Feng and the two of them was gradually improving, and he planned to cultivate it well.
At the Luminus Arena, Wang Feng stood in the middle of the field, listening to the cheers of the home team fans like a tsunami. Feeling full of energy, he wanted to give back to the enthusiastic fans with a great performance.
Brussels is currently ranked 6th in the league, so if they can get all three points, it will be crucial to improve Genk's ranking.
At the beginning of the game, both teams played conservatively, and there were basically no chances to threaten the goal in the first ten minutes. It is worth mentioning that since Wang Feng was reported by the mainstream sports media, Brussels defenders followed him very actively. 𝒻𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝑛ℴ𝘷𝑒𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝑚
With the experience of the previous game, Wang Feng also has some experience in facing the staring defence, that is, constantly running, consuming the opponent's physical strength, gradually distracting him, and there will always be opportunities.
The situation of the game gradually became difficult. In the 21st minute, the Brussels striker received a pass from the midfielder. Seeing that there was no chance in the forward zone, he shot a cold arrow 25 meters away from the goal. Fortunately, the goalkeeper focused and saved the ball.
In the 34th minute, Wang Feng retreated to the midfield to catch the ball, trying to get rid of the defender through his speed, but the opposing player was defending very tightly, leaving him no room to break through, so Wang Feng carefully protected the ball.
At this time, he saw from the corner of his eye the left-winger Adrian Gale was about to go in, so he passed the ball long to the front of the left based on the feeling of training. He received the ball and was left unguarded.
He didn't hesitate, and quickly made a pass from the bottom. Unfortunately, the pass was too close to the goal and was easily picked off by the opponent's goalkeeper.
Gale shook his head helplessly at Blanche at the front of the small penalty area, saying that it was his own problem, and also surprised at the quality of Wang Feng's passing.
Wang Feng was very happy. It seemed that his training had achieved some results. The position of Adrian Gale he predicted just now was relatively accurate, allowing him to easily run out of the open to catch the ball.
In the 44th minute, Gail reciprocated, and sent a clever cross from the left, passing two defenders, and successfully found Wang Feng. Unfortunately, other defenders quickly filled their positions. Wang Feng saw that there was no space to break through. He decisively passed back to midfielder Karl Bess and waited for the opportunity again.
The game ended 0-0 in the first half. Both sides played dull games. Generally speaking, Genk had a slight advantage because Wang Feng's right flank was very active.
The head coach continued to emphasize defence in the locker room, hoping that at least 45 minutes in the second half they would not concede a goal. At the same time, he praised Wang Feng's offensive role, hoping that he could consume the opponent's defence again and make them make mistakes in their busy schedule.
In the 67th minute, after Bess cut off the opponent's ball in the midfield, he quickly put his foot behind Brussels' defence line. Wang Feng understood it and started galloping the moment the ball was passed. Beside him, the defensive player quickly grabbed his clothes.
But his speed was so fast that the defenders only touched the corner of his clothes.
"Wang Feng's quick start, the defenders used pulling foul tactics, failed! Wang Feng continued to dribble and break through!"
"The offence was favourable, the referee didn't call a penalty, Brussels' left back arrived in time and defended closely, let's see how Wang Feng handles the ball."
"Nice, Wang Feng passed the defender with a hook and made a cross!"
"Caspar Blanche hit the goal after the point, goooooooooooooooal! In the 67th minute, Genk finally knocked on the visiting team's door." freewebnov(e)l
"We can look at the slow-motion replay. Wang Feng handled the ball very beautifully. Under the pressure of the defensive player, he deliberately made the movement of his right foot forward to confuse the opponent, and then suddenly used his right foot to pass the ball from behind. Hook it back and make the opponent lose his centre of gravity, this is a classic Cruyff turn!"
"And Wang Feng, who got rid of the defence, sent an exquisite cross. The ball landed right next to Blanche's feet. He only needed to push the ball lightly to score. It can be said that Wang Feng made this goal!"
"Following a pass and a shot against Ghent three days ago, the young player Wang Feng changed the game again tonight."